Paniolo Social

I came here about a month ago so not sure if they’re still doing the Thursday pop up at Bloodhound. I arrived at 5:15pm that day and the place was already packed. I tried the infamous poke bowl ($ 13) and it had a good portion of poke as well as rice, avocado, pea shoots, and a spicy mayo sauce. Although the paper bowl looked small, it was packed with rich ingredients so I was plenty full afterwards. The tuna was very fresh (no fishy smell whatsoever) and in general the flavors were very well balanced. The only thing missing was a little more acid, which could have easily been fixed with a lemon wedge.

SERIOUSLY. The best Hawaiian food (shit– the best food, PERIOD) that you’ll eat! Ridiculously delicious Poke (raw tuna) bowl, tasty noodles, a naughty burger and meticulously hand-​made yummy sausages… Not to mention mochi for dessert! And all this accompanied by Bloodhound’s craft cocktails?! Gourmet Celeb Chef food at Street food prices? Sign me up– EVERY Thursday I’m free– and they just extended through September! Plus– Ravi and the whole crew are the nicest peeps ever and it’s cool to watch them work it. See ya’ll there.

From the man (Ravi Kapur) that brought you the fantastic fare at Liholiho Yacht Club comes another delicious popup; this time, running every Thursday night at Bloodhound, through the month of August. Unlike the fancier dishes of LYC fame, Paniolo Social takes a simpler approach, serving up Hawaiian-​inspired drinking food: poke bowls, noodles, burgers, hot dogs, etc.
How simple? Well, I mean, the man’s making the food on a table set up in the back alley! That said, there was certainly no compromise on the quality of what I tried, which included pretty much the only things that hadn’t sold out yet:
* Cheese Burger ($ 9) — Strauss grassfed beef from happy cows coming towards the end of a life providing dairy, kimchi thousand island dressing, and other magic. Easily one of the best, if not THE best, burgers I’ve had… pretty much anywhere. Cooked to a nice, juicy, medium rare and bursting with flavor, albeit a tad on the saltier side. I imagine it would have paired fantastically with a cold brew, if that’s your kind of thing.
* Noodles ($ 6) — Cold noodles served with a fermented chili-​black bean sauce, cucumbers, cilantro, green onions, and tofu. Yup, a lot of things people might dislike, or have genetic dispositions against. But, delicious if you don’t have any prejudices against the aforementioned. And for anyone that’s had Taiwanese food, these noodles were very reminiscent of my people’s cold sesame noodles.
Food can be ordered towards the back of Bloodhound, or possibly even directly from Ravi himself if you just head down the alley they’re cooking in. And from my chat with him on the way out, it sounds like the plan is to run this through the month of August, with the possibility of an extension if business keeps going as well as it has, until their permanent LYC location opens up in the Tendernob.